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Thursday’s North American close

TSX 12,894.41 +164.08 +1.29%

Dow Jones 15,126.07 +323.09 +2.18%

S&P 500 1,692.56 +36.16 +2.18%

Nasdaq 3,760.75 +82.97 +2.26%

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Janet Yellen is hardly a household name in Canada. But as the Financial Post‘s Gordon Isfeld reports, that is all about to change. At the age of 67, with a resume as long as her arm, the veteran monetary policymaker is set to become the first woman to head the most powerful central bank in the world — the U.S. Federal Reserve. President Barak Obama on Wednesday named Ms. Yellen to replace Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed in February. “America’s workers and their families will have a champion in Janet Yellen,” Mr. Obama told reporters in Washington. Ms. Yellen still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Most likely she will pass, given her credentials — an economist and vice-chair of the Fed since 2010, as well as serving as president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, one of 12 regional arms of the Fed, before that. She was also an economic presidential adviser to Bill Clinton. The timing of Ms. Yellen’s appointment could not have come at more critical time for the U.S. — and, by its close association, for Canada.

Apple Inc. has all but destroyed BlackBerry Ltd.’s business model and now it’s after the Canadian company’s decimated workforce. Just days after BlackBerry Ltd. revealed plans to lay off 40% of its global workforce amid disastrous financial results, representatives from smartphone rival Apple Inc. hosted a recruitment drive roughly 20 kilometres away from the embattled technology company’s Waterloo, Ont. home base. In the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre on Sept. 26, located in Cambridge, Ont. on the outskirts of the Kitchener-Waterloo region where BlackBerry was born, the iPhone maker invited local talent with the aim of luring them to their Silicon Valley operations. “Most positions will be based in Cupertino, CA.,” according to a LinkedIn invite sent to certain BlackBerry employees and obtained by the Financial Post. “Relocation and immigration assistance will be provided for candidates that are hired, as needed.” Six days earlier, BlackBerry had shown it was teetering on the edge of disaster. On Sept. 20, the smartphone maker said it expected to post a nearly US$1-billion loss and would cut 4,500 jobs from their ranks worldwide (in addition to ongoing layoff rounds that had already been underway).

BlackBerry Ltd. is more open to a breakup of the company amid concerns that Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. may be unable to line up funding or partners for a US$4.7 billion buyout, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Companies such as SAP AG, Cisco Systems Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., which were approached last week by BlackBerry advisors, have indicated they’re only interested in parts of the company, people familiar with the discussions said. A breakup would let parties bid for BlackBerry’s most valuable pieces, such as its patents or enterprise network, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. “If you break up the company, you’re going to get more than the company is worth right now,” said Sachin Shah, a strategist in special situations and merger arbitrage at New York-based Albert Fried & Co. Whether Fairfax’s bid is successful or not, “breaking it up sounds more appetizing for all involved,” he said.BlackBerry has been soliciting rival bids after agreeing last month to a tentative US$4.7 billion offer from Fairfax, its largest shareholder.

Related: Cisco, Google and others might be interested in all or part of BlackBerry — Financial Post

Rogers outage outrage

It was a frustrating evening for Rogers Communications’ wireless customers across the country when part of the company’s network went dark. The telecom giant restored its wireless voice and text messaging services late Wednesday night after a major outage. The company’s data services did not appear to be affected by the outage. Rogers’ spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said customers with wireless carrier Fido, Rogers’ lower-priced label, were also affected. In a statement on the company’s website, Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed says he recognizes the outage was ”unacceptable” for customers. Rogers has not yet determined what caused the problem, which produced a torrent if negative customer reaction on social media networks. “We’re continuing to investigate the root cause of the issue to help ensure it doesn’t happen again,” said Mohamed. ”To thank our customers for their patience, Rogers and Fido will proactively credit all of its postpaid wireless customers for one day of service.” Rogers and Fido postpaid wireless customers, those on a contract and who pay monthly, will receive a credit on their bills.

Kinross Gold Corp. has pulled off an increasingly rare feat in the mining industry: building a project on time and on budget. As the Financial Post‘s Peter Koven reports, the Toronto-based miner announced Tuesday that its remote Dvoinoye mine in Northeast Russia has entered commercial production. It was to be inaugurated by the local governor in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. Kinross bought the project back in 2010, and built it for a reasonable price of about US$360-million. It is a moderate-sized mine, with production of 235,000 to 300,000 ounces a year for the first three years. That manageable size was key to bringing it onstream so smoothly, according to chief executive Paul Rollinson. Unlike some of the multi-billion-dollar projects that gold miners (including Kinross) are struggling with, it was possible to keep a very sharp focus on all aspects of this one. “The team hasn’t really missed a beat,” Mr. Rollinson said by phone from Russia.

Giving a cash infusion to its shareholders will not take Jean Coutu out of the running for making future acquisitions, the drug retailer’s chief executive said Wednesday. As the Financial Post’s Hollie Shaw reports, speculation that the Quebec-based drug chain was building up a war chest with proceeds from its sale of shares in the U.S. retailer Rite Aid was dampened this week after the company announced it would return up to $502-million to shareholders through a share buyback and a special, one-time cash dividend of 50¢ a share. “This does not preclude any acquisitions, it doesn’t affect our capital possibilities — no way, actually,” chief executive Francois Coutu told analysts on a conference call to discuss second-quarter results, which had a significant profit jump due to a gain from the Rite Aid disposal. Mr. Coutu predicts there will be more opportunities in the future for buying independent drug retailers, adding the company wants to expand further in Ontario, and neighbouring provinces. “For us being a drugstore operator, we have to seize an opportunity eventually, and we have the capital, we have the will, also to expand. It just has to be done in the right way.”

Related: Does Jean Coutu have a plan? – Financial Post

U.S. debt default can be avoided… at a cost

Like scraping together enough money to pay your mortgage while letting the electricity, telephone and tax bills lapse, the U.S. Treasury has the means to avoid a debt default even if Congress fails to raise the government’s US$16.7 trillion borrowing limit. The bad news is that it can’t prevent a recession. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., IHS Inc. and BNP Paribas SA said they expect the Treasury to husband the tax money it collects to make sure it can meet interest and principal payments on the nation’s debt. Other obligations, from salaries of government workers to payments to defence contractors, would face the ax. The result: US$175 billion less in government spending during November alone, said Goldman’s Alec Phillips in Washington. “The cutting would be so huge it would put the U.S. back into recession,” said Jim O’Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management who is now a Bloomberg View columnist. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has said the “extraordinary measures” he uses to avoid breaching the debt limit will be exhausted no later than Oct. 17. He said the Treasury will then have about US$30 billion on hand, while net expenditures can be as high as US$60 billion on some days.

Related: U.S. debt default risk is starting to make its top creditors nervous – Bloomberg

A cup of coffee to end an impasse?

Maybe U.S. Congress can hammer out their differences and settle the country’s government shutdown over a cup of free coffee. Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, is giving away cups of joe to encourage U.S. politicians to reach a solution to the shutdown and pending debt crisis. Starbucks customers in the U.S. who buy someone else their favourite drink will receive a free tall brewed coffee starting Wednesday through Oct. 11, Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, 60, said in an e-mailed letter to Starbucks store and corporate employees. “It’s that simple — ‘pay it forward,’ and Starbucks will pay you back,” he said. “The U.S. federal government shutdown, the pending debt and default crisis, waning consumer confidence and the general sense of unease these and other events have instilled in the minds of so many have created another period of uncertainty in our country,” Schultz said. “This is a different yet authentic way Starbucks can help our fellow citizens to come together by supporting one another during a particularly challenging time.”

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